Power of the will of man to believe what he wants! Death of a pet symbolism in the Spirit realm. (For Christians.)

I have placed this booklet on this site in the hopes that it might help someone get a hold of their own thoughts and therefore enable a little self examination.Years ago, when the Lord started teaching me, one of the things He taught me was the symbolism of pets in the spirit realm. Once I understood the symbolism, He could give me insight into a lot of things going on in other people's lives, church situations, and some times He would show me that I had a pet. Knowing what a pet means in symbolism helped me to be open to look for and understand what He was revealing about my own life.
This writing also contains the first written account of when God showed me the power of the will of man to believe what he wants. I believe it is written simply enough that anyone can get the picture that it presents.

The Death of a Pet - for Christians(written in 1995)The power of man's will to believe what he wants.The symbolism of pets in the spirit realm!

Jumping into this subject feet first, one must see that the death of a pet in real life correlates or runs parallel with the death of our pets in our thought life or theologies (very simply, what we believe). Theology issomething everyone grows into. We believe what we believe. Our foundational thoughts are ours, a part of us at this very moment, right or wrong.
I suppose it seems strange that God would use a simple real life illustration of having a pet to reveal what we go through when He starts to make jewels out of us by cleaning things out of our lives that don't belong. Actually, He has done the same thing all through the Bible, showing people by illustration and by demonstration.
The first time the Lord showed me a person's doctrinal pet He revealed that it was a doctrine (belief) the person (owner or holder) didn't wantto give up. Here I must emphasize that the word "doctrine" could be translated "teaching," but in this case the doctrine (set of thoughts on a certain subject) had never been taught to this person. It was something this Christian had grown up with or grown into because it was happening, being practiced, as "the way you do it" for years. It was something they wanted to believe, something they wanted to hang onto. Thus we see a correlation between wanting to keep something that is not true, and wanting to keep a pet.
A pet is something that is not necessary to have for life. It is for ourpleasure. One might argue that a seeing eye dog is necessary or very helpful in life. A seeing eye dog may be a pet, but it also goes beyond just being a pet. Pets are something we choose to have or keep. We feed them and love to have them around. Some are inherited or passed down. If we have a pet for a long time we become very close to them. It can be very painful when a particular pet dies. By comparison, it is the same way with beliefs about the word of God. It is painful to find you've been believing wrong concerning the word of God or any untruth in your life.

Our unwillingness to give up, and the length oftime we've had a pet is directly related to theamount of remorse, pain, and death that weexperience when our pet dies.

In certain cases when the pet that has been a life-long partner dies, there is a feeling that a part of the person dies too, because the pet reallywas a part of the person's life. A person goes through grief, mourning, spiritual death, and sometimes anger. They don't know how to act because something was taken from their life. They feel differently. All thesethings are also true of the death of false doctrines or false ideaswe don't want to part with. Anytime one goes through a real death of false thinking, pet style, they go through these things.
I went through a death the day the Lord got through to me that whatI had believed was not true. That doctrine, that lie, that idea that had been a part of me, died. The Lord had given me a truth that was undeniable. He had proved it to me in the scripture and in the physical by demonstration. I just could not let go of my false idea because I would have to deal with all the ramifications of the truth He had revealed. I did not want to believe the Lord!I would have to stand up! The Lord just kept watering the truth until finally it killed the false doctrine that was actually a part of me. I went through anger and remorse. I wept and was cut to the marrow of my bones by the truth which was so painful. It hurt! I gnashed my teeth as I thought, "Oh - G-o-d , oh - G-o-d, this cannot be," but I knew it was as He had revealed. I experienced a gnashing of my teeth because the pure simple truth revealed all the untruths, so I was seeing the surrounding lies. A part of me died as those set of thoughts that were a part ofme died. I had hung on, and hung on, to what I wanted to believe. Yes, I suffered a death of something close to and a part of me, a wrong set of thoughts. I had hung on to the lie for three years and later in my life the Lord brought this fact up to me during a church service. He said, "It took me three years to convince you of whatI showed you in the beginning." --- "Ouch!" You see, it wasn't my will to believe what the Lord had shown me.
Pride and haughtiness enter the equation concerning our willingness to give up our pets. At this point we must realize as fact that God is cleaning up the bride to make her fit for His Son. To help understand this we can look at what has happened in the United States. In a general look at the laws or constitutions of the colonies upon which this premise is found: "If your personal life isn't open and clean accordingto Godly principles in the Bible, you cannot hold office ingovernment." After the time of the colonies a new premise entered
the scene: "You can hold office if you can do your job, and yourpersonal life does not enter into the equation."
Look at the political scene going on right now. Every scandal that is revealed about a public official produces a bad image. It degrades the government and causes the government to not function smoothly and properly. Government is forced to deal with situations it shouldn't be dealing with. The truth is, the things we have in our character always enter into and affect the work place, whether in the government or in the church. If a person is stable or unstable it will affect all situations where the person is involved.
It is time for the cleanup of the Bride of Christ. God is starting with the leaders, those coming on the scene. All the hidden lies in theirpersonal lives must be exposed to them and dealt with. All thefalse doctrines in the church are to be exposed and dealt with. To understand what has been happening concerning the leadership in the church in the past, we must understand that all the gifts of God are without repentance, meaning they were given and function whether or not a person is walking in or preaching truth. The gifts of the spirit function whether a person's life is clean and right in biblical terms or not. I used to believe that if a gift was functioning God was verifying or confirming what was being preached. This is not true! God confirms a truth by demonstration of that truth!
Because of the fact that our personal lives always affect our witness and our jobs or positions in the church the Lord is in the cleaning business in our personal lives. This must be done so the enemy cannot enter into what God is doing and stop the ministry of Jesus Christ to the world in these Last Days. It's all based upon and ispointed in the direction of the ministry of Jesus Christ. The Spotless Bride will flow with Him uninterrupted by all our hang-ups.

A Broader Picture

The Lord will not tolerate what He hates to be present in the spotless bride.

Proverbs 6: 16-19 ILB
These six things Jehovah hates; yea seven are hateful to His soul; a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; a heart that plots evil plans; feet hurrying to run into mischief; a false witness who breathes lies; and he who causes strife among the brothers.

If we have any one of these things in our lives then the Lord endeavors to remove them. We will suffer "pet deaths" in our personal lives because if we have one of these traits, that trait is really a part of us, a part of our character. It hurts to have a finger cut off, and it hurts just as much tohave a trait or a lie cut out. The Lord is in the character changingbusiness. We all have things in our lives we don't want to be rid of, things that feed our egos and we don't want to admit to them. Most of these are unknown to us. Persons who are ministering must walk in the truth of their ownlife, no matter what that is, to be a good witness for the Lord. We become hypocrites in the eyes of those we are trying to minister to when we don't walk in (admit) what and where we really are in our personal lives. An example of this is if we have sinned and won't admit the sin. Not admitting a sin can be worse than the sin because that is haughtiness. It's not only the sin but also the lack of admitting thetruth that affects our ministry. [We are to confess our shortcomings to one another, not to the world, except for the purpose of ministering to the world.] If we have something in us that hinders the admission of our sin (the truth) then the Lord has to remove that hindrance. The reason is, the pure truthsets you free no matter what that truth is, although it may not seemthat way at the time. If we have hidden things in our lives then we are under and in a way controlled by whatever we are hiding in our minds. It concerns our minds. If we are hiding things in our minds then we are not really free to say what is on our minds. The Enemy can use the hidden things of our lives against the ministry of the Lord flowing through us and around us. He will do this in your mind and in the minds of the people your life is affecting. It's as simple as, "I cannot talk about this subject freely because I cannot lie, and they would find out my weaknesses." Simple, isn't it?
Everything the Lord does with us concerning our character points toward cleaning us up and bringing us to walk in His idea of truth, which is pure truth, in every area of our lives.
Those things that have not become entrenched in you are not too hard to get rid of. In these you will not experience death because it is just a ripping or stripping away, as the untruths really weren't a part of you, just hanging on. But the deliverance of things you don't want to lose, pets (untruths) that are in your life, always bring a death experience because of the depth or hold it has had on your life. The true death of your falseset of foundational thoughts you don't want to lose brings remorse, grief, and a feeling of being different because you are different. God can reveal the pure truth to you and those thoughts of pure truth can coexist, for a while, with the false thoughts or lie. One set of thoughts or the other willalways win out and become visible in your actions at some pointin the future. This is what was happening in me before the day those thoughts, or the pet I had, died.
The Lord revealed to me that there are a lot of people who have heard a truth but they won't let their old set of thoughts die. They won't accept the truth even when it is literally backed by the Holy Spirit giving insight to scripture. They are blinded by their pets (sets of thoughts already a partof them), those ideas they don't want to give up because they are comfortable with them, and like them. These are minds that are the rocky or bad ground in the parable of the sower, as they won't even let the seedof truth enter their reasoning process, because of the thoughts that areactually a part of them, and unknown to themcontrolling their thinking.People don't want to deal with life without their pets. People like to keep believing what they want to believe. They don't want to deal with any untruth they may be living. I can say this because I've been there.
Pets can come in many styles, forms, covers, and shapes. They run from the foundational things we believe to simple grudges we want to keep. But the basic deep change in our souls toward the new life God talks about always includes a death.
The Lord revealed He was taking me from farming into the ministry. I loved farming, as it was what I planned to do all my life. The truth of the matter is, I had to focus on the Lord and His ministry and let my farming die. Without the death of farming in my life there could not be a complete new life in the ministry.
I remember the day the Lord told me to leave the church where I had grown up. I was devastated about why He would tell me to do this. The Sunday came that I knew would be my last. I was angry, hurt, and I felt different because I knew it was over, gone. Something I was used to was gone from my life. I had asked the Lord repeatedly, "Why? Why? Why?" I had used phrases like, "Aren't you the God that can do anything? Nothing is impossible for you. Can't you do with me what you want with me and at the same time leave me in this church? These are my friends!" I asked again, "Why?" as I lay crying on my bed that last Sunday. The Lord answered me, "You will never become the man I wantyou to be if you stay."With those words a death was final. I had experienced all those things we experience when we lose someone or something so much a part of our lives. I was experiencing anger, remorse, grief, and a feeling of not knowing how to act because I was different, and I knew the circumstances around me would be different. I had lost a set of thoughts that were in mymind about my future.Believe me, I subconsciously had it planned bothfor me and my family. With those words,"You will never become the manI want you to be if you stay," my healing started to manifest.

Your acceptance and understanding of the puretruth are directly related to your healing of thedeath of your pet.

If you only accept a part of the truth or won't give up all of yourpet (your lie) you will never experience the complete healing of thepure truth of the lie that has been ripped out of you. I've heard the saying, "The truth will set you free but first it will make you miserable." If one of your pets has died, you understand this. I held on to what God had revealed knowing that truth brings true healing to situations and relationships. The knowledge of the purpose and the understandingof why I had to leave that church healed the wounds of leaving.
The problem with pets really comes into play when the pet you love and want to keep becomes a controlling factor in your life. In fact I have yet to find a revealed pet (revealed by God in the spirit realm) that wasn't in partial control of the person's life, and causing a problem somewhere, somehow. Even in the natural one must feed their pet or see to it someone else does. This reveals the fact that a pet always controls a part or area of our lives. Pets, false doctrines, and untruths take time and effort to keep, even though we don't realize it.
I have seen the Lord reveal truth through prophecy. I've seen Him give instruction through prophecy. I've seen those people receiving the word (prophecy), and because of their pets (ideas), actually go to great effort to prove their pets (false set of ideas or direction) to be OK. The, "I don't believe that," without examination, reveals the possibility of a pet. A church can be a pet as well as a denomination, ideology, theology, even prejudice, and even down to just carrying a grudge. This all reduces to a false setof thoughts about something we want to hang onto that are contrary tothe thoughts of God. We're hanging on to something that is not necessarily truth, and it may be a blatant lie. These things become our pet when wehang on to them. "There can't be anything wrong with this, or that." "I like this church" or "I choose to believe this because it's what I grew up in." "I choose to believe this because it's what I've been taught and so-'n-so can't be wrong." People, the spotless church has not ever existed on theearth before! Are we teachable?

A Dangerous Pet

To Completely understand the pure truth ofwhat scripture says, is to know what it doesn't say.

The most dangerous pet concerns scriptural beliefs. I once talked to a person about his belief that had been taught him concerning the idea that one must be baptized to be saved. In other words, baptism in water saves you. I showed him what Paul taught, and he didn't react one way or the other. I said that if baptism in water saved you then Jesus didn't need to go to the cross because baptism in water was already being practiced by the Jews. He agreed. I said that the man who hung on the cross beside Jesus, whom Jesus said would be with him in paradise, was saved and he was not baptized. At this point he said, "Maybe he was baptized before he got hung on the cross beside Jesus," laughed and walked off. At this point the doctrine became his pet, something he didn't want to part with. He didn't want to deal with his pet because he would have to change his life, and he didn't want to deal with all the things and people he would have to make a stand against. The fact is, this doctrine is causing people to go to hell!.... Dangerous pet!

It's Not that Bad

To me, this next example is the simplest form of a destructive pet. In my first marriage, my wife told me we had problems. My daughters even told me. I chose to believe an untruth by thinking it was not really true. "It's not that bad" were my pet thoughts and I chose to ignore the truth and refused to examine what was being said to me. I heard the truth, but I wasn't listening. I wasrejecting the truth without even examining itbecause I couldn't facewhat it might bring. I might have to deal with something I didn't want to deal with. This couldn't happen to me. I was being haughty by believing what I wanted to believe, my pet. I was living a lie, namely, "There isn't really anythingwrong. It will pass." Well, when the divorce came, I suffered the death of the lie I kept as a pet. My pet did me no good and actually harmed me and my family. Every pet that God has revealed to me has produced harm in some way.

Truth

Truth endures all things. It lasts forever, overcoming everything. It always manifests, revealing lies. And if it doesn't manifest in this life, it will manifest to you, exposing all lies, when you pass on to the next phase, controlled by God. There is always gnashing of teeth when one is shown the lies, by seeing the pure truth. People who deny what God revealed about salvation will gnash their teeth when they see the truth, because of the simplicity of it.

A Tidal Wave

One day I was traveling down the canal route in Wichita, Kansas. The Lord made me see the power, the force of the human spirit, combined with the will of man to believe and teach what they want to believe. In a speck of a second, I saw not only preachers in the church world,and teachers in the secular world, but I also saw the kings of yesteryears,and the cultures and traditions of countries enveloping the lives of itscitizens. This power was as the power of a five hundred foot tidal wave enveloping people, only it was gentle, and therefore unknown to those it was consuming. I saw this thing move deliberately through the city of Wichita as a tidal wave would. This experience dealt directly with my understanding of our will to keep our pets, to believe what we want to believe.

God deals directly with our pets by bringing the truthto light in the natural, by His spirit. Hopefully, thisbreaks and kills our haughtiness and our pets.

A friend of mine told me one day that if a person won't admit there is aproblem, it will not be fixed. For three years I wouldn't admit the problem the Lord had shown me in the beginning. Oh, the power of the "will" of man!

Two Pets

Once I was shown two families' or peoples' pets. They had come together in the road and were getting ready to fight. One was intruding on the other's supposed territory. The point is it was needless because they represented things in their owner's lives that were not biblical and weren't necessary. They represented things God wanted out of their lives. Trouble was brewing because of the pets and their supposed territory. Those pets needed to die because they were interfering with what God was really doing!
Every pet I have seen that the Lord has revealed to me through the Spirit represented a lie, and was something the owners liked and wanted to keep.
Are we hanging on to our pets, or are we letting them die? If you haven't experienced anger, remorse, and grief, with the feeling of not knowing how to act because you feel different, you have not really suffered or experienceda true complete death.

Thoughts

A death is necessary for a true conversion into a new life. Look at a seed! Look at Jesus on the cross! A death is necessary to become a part ofthe Spotless Bride. Sometimes a person blames the devil because of the uncomfortableness of a cleansing of the Lord. This is due to the lack of understanding of what is really happening. The devil is not the revealerof the lies in our lives. He wants you to believe them and live them because the truth sets you free. It is God who is the revealer of truth,exposing the lies. A yielded teachable spirit is necessary to rid ourselves of false teachings.

False Belief

I carried my false belief that I had really generated myself, before I was saved, over into my saved life. I was simply misusing a scripture. I didn't lose the lie through my salvation experience. I simply quoted a scripture to a man and then afterwards the Lord dealt with me about it. He said, "The lies that come from your mouth." It's easy to misuse the Word of God. The problem is we tend to believe those teachings we were taught after our moment of salvation, so they become a part of us. Therefore, they becomeour foundational belief, right or wrong.We unknowingly use thosethoughts as the reference to know or judge what is true and not true about the word of God.

We need to examine what is coming forth from the Holy Spiritin the light of how the Holy Spirit teaches: comparing spiritualwith spiritual (I Cor. 2:13), and in the totality of the scriptures,and in the light of the confirmation, or demonstration of thetruth by God.

In the light of the above statement and mentioned scripture, do you know what you believe is true or do you believe what you believe is true?Have youproved all things like the Bible says to do? God does not control what people believe.He created us with free wills, which is a part of His own image.
One day I was arguing with God and he told me in a loud voice. "It is as it is." One thought I had was this, "That's the stupidest answer I ever heard, it doesn't answer anything." Three days later the understanding came rolling in on me, "Everything is as I say it is. You can go on believing whatever you wantto believe, but that won't change the truth of how it is." Did you catch the, "You can go on believing whatever you want to believe?" Our wills are our wills, very powerful, and sometimes our own wills blind us so we can't see or hear the truth. The Lord will have His spotless bride and she will be real in truth andin character, notsomething we call spotless, that is not spotless.
Putting this lightly and in my words, the Bible says that in the last days there will be false doctrines in the church, teachers ever learning, never able to learn. And you say, "But that's the one down the street, not ours." Well, welcometo the "Pets for Life" club.Membership is free but the benefits areso costly.
I have written all this to help you understand what is happening when the Lord delivers you from a lie. If you can recognize what is happening, you will accept what is happening quicker and healing and acceptance of thedeliverance will be easier and shorter. I know. I've been there.

To spur your thinking . . .1. Is God trying to move you? Your past can be a pet. God is taking you to the future in Him. He's saying, "Let go of those things in your past." Sometimes we go on with God but have a string tied onto something from our past which we keep d-r-a-a-g-ging along. We keep trying to inject it into our present and therefore our future. If we keep dragging these things along we will never walk into the freedom that God has for us in the new thing He is doing in our life. What is the item, memory, keepsake, doctrine, profession, ministry, service, etc.you can't let go of?Is it over? If so, let go!2. There are people who teach (say) that God isn't speaking, or thereisn't any God. Others say that there aren't any prophets or apostlesanymore, or He doesn't really mean we (Christians) will come into theunity of the faith. The list goes on and on. All this is a pet of men that they hold on to, so they don't have to deal with their own position or maybe the fact that they have never recognized the voice of God, or the fact in the scriptures that God said, and Jesus said, there would be present day prophets and apostles. What a way to go to meet the Creator, in denial of what He said!3. I wish you could have seen what the Lord revealed to me, the power ofthewill, and the power of the spirit of man to preach and teach whatman wants to believe.